Amen! I've blessed DVR technology through tournament season because trying
to watch the final two minutes of almost any game live is unbearable. I want to
watch the athletes play basketball, not H-O-R-S-E.

(And it's
the worst kind of H-O-R-S-E because they only shoot from the foul line and they
don't do any of those awesome backwards-over-the-head shots!)

Fouling at the end of the game has been strategy for decades, I don't favor
taking that away. Good teams will prevail at the fee throw line if they truly
deserve the win. I am probably the lone voice in the wilderness, but I believe
basketball at all levels needs more consistency and commons sense in calling
fouls in general. They need to promote established positioning, instead of
riding, reaching and hacking. Call an intentional foul what it is...INTENTIONAL.
Call a flagrant foul what it is...intentionally dangerous and FLAGRANT!

I like to watch exciting basketball and not just a foul shooting exposition.

I think the rule-makers think it keeps the game exciting (because it may
allow the team that's behind to get back into the game). I think
it's boring.

I think the rule to advance the ball on timeouts in
Pro basketball is the same concept. Allows the team that's behind to have
more possessions and possibly get back into it even if only a few seconds
left.

Even a six point lead isn't safe with 10 seconds in the
NBA.

Setting up Buzzer beaters is the goal. I think the refs are
encouraged to try to help achieve that same goal (keep the game interesting to
the end).

REa: "Good teams will prevail at the fee throw line if they truly deserve
the win"...

Ya... but it's not basketball.

If
that's what you call "basketball"... why don't we just have
each team line up and alternate shooting foul shots for 40 minutes and see who
makes the most foul shots?

===

Also missing a foul shot
doesn't mean you don't deserve to win. The best TEAM doesn't
always win in a foul shooting contest. They may be the best TEAM but have a
weak foul shooter. Just because you have one foul shooter who chookes...
doesn't mean you weren't the best TEAM. It just means one individual
on the TEAM failed and cost the whole team the game. That's a LOT of
pressure to put on a kid.

So glad to hear that someone has recognized the ridiculousness of basketball
game endings. Doug described very well every objection I have to this
situation. I hope something will be done. The way it is now takes the game out
of the hands of the players and into the desperate antics of the coaches.

Don't mess with the fouls. Foul shooting is a big part of the game. If
you can't shoot you should pay the price. The problem is that there are
too many timeouts. Either get rid of the mandatory media timeouts or give the
coaches fewer timeouts.

My suggestion for fixing the last 3 minutes is less extreme: if the team
that's ahead is fouled before they get a shot off and their possession ends
with free throws, half of their remaining shot clock is subtracted from the game
clock.

Not all late-game fouls are alike. Fouls should be penalized
according to how immediate/premature they are.

My idea reduces the
incentive to foul prematurely and keeps the game going. Giving possession and
free throws is too much.

(At the same time, the NCAA Men's shot
clock should be reduced to 30 seconds.)

@ 2 bits I usually agree with your ideas, but I consider your thoughts about
basketball, to be rather shallow. Your only about "excitement". Nobody
said to make it a freethrow contest...it should be about performance and
strategy. The winning team isn't putting the losing team on the freethrow
line. In line your snippy comment, it would be just as logical to call the game
2 minutes early, and hand the win to the team that's ahead. For those of
you who can't handle or don't want to concentrate long enough to watch
a full game, lets just make them 10 minute games, or play to 20 by 2's.

yes - but the article doesn't point out the real push against changing any
of this - the large amount of commercials that can be shown during the last
"minute" of the game. Advertisers pay big bucks to the TV networks.
The TV networks pay big bucks to the NCAA or conferences so that they can pay
the coaches' million dollar salaries and the million dollar salaries of
other bureaucratic leaders. Advertisers are not upset with the slow endings.

Agree with RBN. Leave the fouls alone, decrease the number of timeouts. How
does an official differentiate between an intentional foul and aggressive play?
I would even go along with shortening the time clock. But giving the leading
team foul shots and possession? Give me a break!

Shorten the shot clock (even just to 30, which it already is in the women's
game), get rid of 1and 1( go straight to 2 foul shots), make media timeouts
every 5 minutes (not every 4), give the players 6 fouls instead of 5 (too many
fouls were called this year, refs were inconsistent with the new focus on
allowing offensive position) , take away one more timeout at halftime if it
isn't used (currently 4 are allowed to begin the 2nd half)

In the NBA, don't they limit timeouts in the last 2 minutes of a game and
take some unused timeouts away if needed ? Two less timeouts for each team
would be fine, especially with all of the media timeouts.

I think
they also allow one foul in the last 2 minutes before the other team starts
shooting the bonus. That would also be an improvement. But it's foolish to
not let the losing team have a chance to catch up.

With all that said, they could still reduce the timeouts to three per team per
half. I would say after 15 fouls, the team fouled should get three shots. In
the NBA, bring back the three to make two after 10 fouls. This would curtail
fouling as a successful strategy.

Oh yes, it's shallow to watch basketball to see exciting athletic
performances. Why do you watch?

I for sure don't look
forward to a playoff-game hoping I can watch them stand on the line hoping to
watch someone miss a free-throw.

Free-throws were intended to be the
penalty for breaking a rule... not as a way for the loosing team to win.

I think some coaches abuse intentional fouling to the detriment of the
game.

Remember the "hack-a-shack" strategy in the playoffs
way back when? I don't tune in to a playoff game to watch a slow game
with only one team playing. Team-A gets to play basketball when they have the
ball, but when Team-B gets the ball they intentionally a foul player who
doesn't even have the ball and stop everything.

Team-A never
has to play defense. And Team-B's offense never gets going.

I
want to watch both teams play tough defense and run plays. Watching one team
play and the other team just stand at the foul line... is not what NBA fans tune
in to see.

How about a compromise: 1 free throw and possession. That should be plenty of
disincentive. And why not do that for the whole game? Heck, you could probably
do away with foul limits and "fouling-out" which allows the refs to
drastically alter a game, even in the early minutes of a game by calling two
quick, ticky-tack fouls on a key player.

As for this fundamentally
changing the game... YES!! that's the point! We've done it before:
3-point shots is a prime example. Don't fear changing the game for the
better.

I don't think you'd get as far with the fouling issue as you would
with timeouts. The calls I find particularly egregious are non-deadball
timeouts. I don't know how the game got these implemented in the first
place, but enabling players to call for a "re-do" shouldn't be
allowed.

Bailing out players and coaches in live ball situations
dramatically slows the game down and shifts responsibility away from the players
on the floor - which is why we watch the game, right?

Eliminate
live-ball timeouts (including after made baskets or free throws) and you'd
actually get an exciting final couple minutes.

"Free-throws were intended to be the penalty for breaking a rule... not as a
way for the loosing team to win."

Still disagree! I'm
all for limiting timeouts and timeout situations. I don't believe in
handing somebody a win, just because they are ahead with a minute or two to go.
As for you quote above, you might as well say give the "fouled" team a
point, and not shoot the free throw at all. I think you should have to perform
right up to the end of the game! No handouts!